Know About Heart Diseases

World heart day passed on 26th September 2010. It is a day to generate greater awareness among people regarding heart diseases. The heart is one of the most vital organs of the body and functions non stop throughout life to keep the body parts well perfused with blood and life giving oxygen. Therefore any malady affecting the heart makes a person breathless on slight exertion. This is because the diseased heart is unable to meet the increased demand of the body for oxygen. Long standing heart disease leads to reduced blood supply and affects the functioning of the gut, kidneys and all body parts. This results in reduced appetite, nausea, vomiting and malnutrition due to reduced absorption of nutrients. Impaired functioning of the kidneys causes swelling all over the body and renal failure. Similarly reduced blood supply to the liver, leads to cirrhosis and liver failure. All these combine to make a person sicker. Treatment consists of surgical correction in cases where feasible. But this applies only to diseases present since birth or some abnormalities of heart valves. The surgery is expensive and not easily accessible. Alternate therapy is by medicines for life to keep the patient stable. But over a time every individual tends to develop side effects due to these medicines, which adds on the misery. Therefore, it is important for people to be aware of different kinds of heart diseases so that they can be prevented possibly and on occurrence can be treated at the earliest. Congenital heart diseases are the ones which occur due to malformations in the heart present since birth. Usually these malformations develop from mother’s womb due to some infections or drugs. The baby born fails to suck adequately fails to thrive and may turn blue while crying. These features should alert one to the possibility that the baby has a heart problem. A pregnant woman has to be very careful, particularly during the first 3 months, as this is the time when the body of the child is formed. Rheumatic fever and its resultant damage to the heart valves is a source of heart disease in adolescents and young adults, more so in the poor of developing countries. It is important to educate the masses about rheumatic fever and that it is the result of untreated or poorly treated streptococcal sore throat infection. Prevention and timely treatment of this infection will definitely bring down the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease. Hypertension (high blood pressure) is yet another heart related disease, the prevalence of which is rising across the globe along with development and related stress. People need to understand the need for adequate treatment of hypertension by suitable diet, exercise and if needed medications. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the number one cause for sickness and untimely deaths in developed nations and one of the leading causes for sudden deaths and much sickness in underdeveloped countries. It is multi factorial. Fat rich diet, obesity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, diabetes, alcohol, and smoking and stress all these are implicated in causing coronary artery disease. All these factors can be controlled very well for preventing CAD. An individual may develop CAD due to one or more of these factors and it can be passed on to his offspring through genes, thus a family history of CAD is yet another risk factor for CAD, but one which cannot be modified. Therefore a person having a parent or blood relative suffering from CAD has to be more careful and avoid other risk factors for preventing development of CAD.The heart and its layers can be affected by infections like T.B. or viral infections like any other part of the body. Resulting symptoms are the same as for other types of heart diseases. In this case, timely treatment of the infection can lead to normal functioning of the heart again. Ministry of health is doing a great job in collaboration with Rwanda heart care foundation and voluntary teams in providing free cardiac surgeries for children and young adults affected by congenital and rheumatic heart diseases. But more efforts are needed to generate awareness about these diseases at grass root level so that these diseases can be prevented. If required adequate treatment in time can prevent irreversible damage to the heart. –rachna212002@yahoo.co.uk